1834 Are your Christmas cards ready?

We've usually received at least one or two Christmas letters by this time (week-end after Thanksgiving). Card/letters from my cousin Gayle and friend from high school Lynne usually are first. Then there is a cousin in Iowa and a niece in Florida who send theirs out some time in the Spring. Cousin Mel's wife found her New Year's letter and sent it in October. Ours are ready, but I haven't run the labels yet, or composed the Christmas letter. You would think with all the writing I do, I'd have that ready to go in an instant, but it is often done the final week and my husband will be asking everyday, so they are sent out in batches, with only a few getting the letter. If you're on our list, this is what you'll see this year:

We couldn't get the lighting just right and it is too large to scan, so finally he took it to the camera shop, they used a digital camera 10x better than mine, and had the cards ready the same day. Actually, I thought my photo was better for color accuracy. This shot must have been after several tries, because I see samples of the prints sitting under this. The problem isn't my camera, but the home printer has a problem picking up all the colors. [The painting is my husband's.]

Now you can have web based companies prepare and mail paper cards--it will even create a font of your handwriting. As a potential recipient, I'm really not comfortable with all those personal addresses floating around on hackable web sites--mine included--and I'd sure be cautious about letting someone copy my signature. So if you're doing that--just take me off your list.

My husband put up the Christmas tree and got out the decorations on Wednesday. That's a bit earlier than I would choose, but since he does all the work of dragging it out of the garage attic, putting it together, digging the boxes out of the basement, buying the new lights, etc., I won't complain.